


Dying From Living

by DreadfulStar



Category: Original Work
Genre: Birth, Cats, Death, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kittens, killing animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26778559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreadfulStar/pseuds/DreadfulStar
Summary: A short story assignment from my high school days (2017). We were prompted with several components and then had to craft a story from them at random.Klaudette lived her elderly life alone except for the companionship of a mouthy cat she loved. That loud-mouthed cat was named Mitzi. Unfortunately, only Klaudette seemed to be the only one who loved Mitzi. She was renowned for loudly wailing around the neighborhood. Mitzi, ready to give birth to a litter of kittens, forces Klaudette to face the cycle of life, justice, and death within 24 hours.
Kudos: 1





	Dying From Living

The morning sky cast its star speckled blanket away and let the dawning sun rise in its place. The light blues and lavenders of the sky cascaded down across the horizon of the small town. Connersville, Indiana stood for decades, now centuries, under this beckoning sun, a routine repeated eagerly every early spring till autumn when the sky grew orange like the leaves of the rotund trees. For once, the world seemed blissfully unaware of the tragedies looming. There usually seemed to be no escape into the lilac sky, no facade one could cloak oneself in. Klaudette deemed the title of one such observer. She examined the world from the daintily-draped windows of her sun-bleached house. 

Klaudette knew the nearby world like none other in the neighborhood. She lived alone, a white, wild-haired elderly figure with skin as translucent as thin wax. As the day warmed up, the brittle limbs of a dying tree tapped the window of Klaudette’s room, echoing a marcatto rhythm that pulled Klaudette from her deep slumber. She removed herself from the bed and turned the ceiling fan’s light on in her cluttered room. The motions that began to fill the room aroused the delicate, storm cloud gray tuft of fur packed into itself at the foot of Klaudette’s bed. A long, cottony tail emerged from the fluff, followed by legs, a head, and whiskers in suit. Klaudette’s cat licked her paws and shook her plump body before sliding off onto the ground. The deep gray feline strutted herself out of the room, rounded belly swaying with her waltzing gait. 

Klaudette smiled at the melodramatic walk of her cat. She sighed, “Oh Mitzi girl, you are a show. You want some food, darlin’?”

Mitzi squinted her eyes and flicked the long, limber tail around her body. She yawned and lead the way to the dim kitchen. Klaudette followed the young, vivid cat on her journey to the food bowl. Mitzi stopped walking and sat on the ground, opening her dainty mouth and proceeding to screech a terrible high pitched growl. Over the years, Klaudette became desensitized to Mitzi’s call, now amused by the cat’s inability to properly meow. Mitzi’s personality gave Klaudette a reason to wake up each and every morning. Klaudette never had kids, never able to, despite trying for years with her husband before he died on an early October morning. Klaudette found him stiff and taut-skinned in the garage. She found him leaning against the workbench with the garage door wide open, letting the snow crawl itself into the abode. 

The swelling of Mitzi’s full belly reminded Klaudette of the life she could not bring into the world herself. Klaudette could feel no jealousy in Mitzi’s pregnancy, only an eagerness to pamper each kitten as they blossomed into spoiled brats. Mitzi ate the soft, name brand cat food and licked her maw clean, tail whipping to the side in contentment. Klaudette laughed at Mitzi’s display and Klaudette tilted her head slightly, taking in the beauty of Mitzi’s presence. She chuckled when Mitzi stretched then galloped away into the house. 

Mitzi found herself a place to rest, away from Klaudette.

Klaudette meandered to her living room. She retired to the leather recliner, listening to it whoosh as she sat down. She turned on the television and within seconds of the news droning on, sleep reclaimed her. Hours passed before Klaudette suddenly startled awake at the sound of Mitzi screeching once again. When Klaudette rose, a triad of mews joined Mitzi. Klaudette thought to herself all of the joys that would come along with the new kitten endeavor. 

Under the laundry baskets by the crooked back door, Mitzi nested herself on a cotton towel with seven bobbing heads nuzzling her stomach. At the sight of Klaudette, Mitzi’s gleamingly luciferous eyes widened and flaunted the saffron color of her eyes. The black and tawny tabbies at her stomach looked almost nothing like her, all short-haired and striped. Mitzi rose from the towel, the rounded heads latching onto her desperately. Mitzi’s ears flicked, a cry for help, and she screamed for Klaudette. Mitzi’s first litter already lacked direction. Mitzi hated them. Mitzi’s fatigued feet carried her to the back door and Klaudette relented, opening the door for the cat to walk out. The weight of the door dropped it back into place around the same time that Klaudette descended to the level of the squirming kittens. Bits of goo still clung to their fur where Mitzi neglected to properly clean them. Klaudette tenderly stroked the top of each of the little kitten’s skulls. 

Klaudette remained happily beside the kittens until Mitzi screamed outside like she never used to. Klaudette’s heart kicked her lungs until they wheezed, constricting in fear. It seemed as if Klaudette’s body could not rise fast enough to run out the back door into the alley. From where Klaudette stood, she could see a hunched figure pinning Mitzi down. Klaudette recognized the boy as Thomas James, a seventeen-year old that tormented the alleys near her house. His ginger hair shined in the light of the sun, glowing like the burning coals of hellfire. The eyes that rose from his victim and reflected the same gray of Mitzi’s fur, two cold, heartless stones that he saw his world through. He carried out an infandous act. TJ dipped his pocket knife deep into Mitzi’s gut and yanked down. She screamed again and fought, but he broke her body underneath him. Thomas James, TJ as she knew him, gruesomely slaughtered Mitzi. 

Klaudette screamed until her voice growled, “You hellion! You beast! You get away from her!” She ran down the alley as TJ turned on heel and darted as fast as his limber, jean-clad legs could take him. Klaudette cried out as she dropped to Mitzi’s trembling side, “Oh, my baby, my sweetie… It’ll be okay… I…”

All Klaudette could do in that moment was cry, the sorrowful weapon of lamenting grief. The crimson tide under Mitzi’s body waned away into the rough gravel beneath them, taking Mitzi’s life with it. Hatred stirred within Klaudette, an emotion she rarely felt in its entirety. 

The wisping pangs of white hot fury started to bubble the veins that coiled under the skin loosely covering her body like onion paper. TJ ran like a bullet down the alley, jumping over potholes, and swerving out of sight. Klaudette thought she heard him laughing and that alone should have fueled the pursuit, but she knew she could not run after him. Defeat hushed Klaudette in the silence. 

Klaudette carefully bent down to pick up Mitzi, feeling the warm bodied softness she knew instead of a corpse. Mitzi’s eyes remained open, caught permanently in space. The trudge back to the house weighed down the two tremendously. The aureate gleam of the sun above Klaudette only mocked her. If only today could have been as pure as the summer around her. Death thrived within Klaudette’s arms, reminding her of all the youth that dies when she does not. The warmth of the blood clung to Klaudette’s blouse, but it did not stop Klaudette from embracing Mitzi to her. 

“Mitzi girl… you still got your kittens… You can’t be…. He stole you away,” Klaudette whispered, tears welling up in the crooks of an aging face, “He stole you. He has no mind of what living means. I’ll get ‘im and make him realize what he’s done. Somehow.”

Mitzi dripped onto the porchwood and continued to as Klaudette carried her through the house, searching for a towel to wrap her in. When Klaudette reached the bathroom by the hall, the mews below restarted a realization. Motherless now, the kittens squirmed in their hunger, calling out in desperate thirst for Mitzi’s milk. Klaudette tore herself away, knowing they would most definitely die now, orphans. She draped Mitzi in the fine, plush cloth that dangled from the end of her shower. How could she continue? Her mind started glitching, jumping between the memory of TJ tearing Mitzi up to the kittens to now to the future. A cold, fast jolt whumped Klaudette in the chest and she bawled. Klaudette relinquished Mitzi to the ground and near-threw herself beside the kittens. Many started squeaking, turning their heads towards her and trying their best to waddle forth. 

Klaudette started to swaddle them all up within their blanket, take them to the shelter. In the dull gleam of the bathroom’ fluorescent lights, Klaudette knew of her own mortality and limits, she could raise kittens but not by hand; she did not anticipate Mitzi’s departure from this earth. 

Moments crawled by as Klaudette readied the kittens inside a shoe box and created a casket for Mitzi from an old cardboard container. The kittens mews bounced around the room in harmonious discord as Klaudette lifted them up and away from the ground, slowly willing her legs to walk towards the front door. The keys to her little chevrolet jangled against the box despite struggling to keep the kittens from becoming scared. Yet, her attempts proved futile. Dogs leapt against fences that lined yards, barking so loud that Klaudette swore gunshots ricocheted down the street. Fear picked away at the kittens.

“Can’t do it, no, can’t do it. Can’t do it!” Klaudette swivelled and shut the front door behind her, walking back into her house with a ferocious march. 

The box containing the kittens jumped around, lively, as Klaudette set them on top of the antique wood table. Nervousness made Klaudette’s feet dance around, pulling her around with them in anxious planning. Klaudette knew she needed feeding kits to rear the babies. She needed a warming device to keep them alive in the night. In Klaudette’s nervous planning, she walked herself down the hallway to where Mitzi still laid by the door, wrapped up in a towel. 

The bustling anxiety that pumped up Klaudette’s spirits began to fizzle as the sight of Mitzi lingered before her. 

“I need to bury you, girl. I need to,” Klaudette sighed. 

The yard behind Klaudette’s house only stretched a few yards out until it reached the alley where Mitzi died. The front of the house held most of the yard, but burying an animal close to the street bothered Klaudette. The concept felt as if she sacrificed Mitzi up to be ran over for the rest of time. A little wooden shed-like structure leaned against the back of Klaudette’s house, to the left of her crooked back door. Within the shed, Klaudette found a heavy, spade left untouched for years. The last time the spade held usefulness dated back to when Klaudette last renovated the garden beside her short concrete path leading to her cars in the nineties. Yet, now, the spade claimed the title of a grave digger, used to bury a young cat. 

Klaudette held Mitzi tight within her shroud as she dragged the spade out of the clutter and towards the soft, loose soil of the back yard. A shaded portion of the yard seemed perfect to Klaudette, away from the road and under the neighbour’s lumbering tree. Klaudette gracefully placed Mitzi on the ground, wary of taking her time away the kittens, afraid, and grasped the spade in weak hands. 

The hefty spade plunged into the ground and easily broke the soil apart. A small hole began to appear as Klaudette used her fading energy to lift the ground laden spade up and away. A burning strain clutched Klaudette’s arms and made the spade seize midair as Klaudette gasped in exasperated pain. Klaudette knew she could not dig deep enough with her strength. The hole that taunted Klaudette perhaps sank only a foot into the ground, an easy target for the stray dogs that roam the night. 

In Klaudette’s despair, she wiped at her watering eyes and stepped away from the hole. A sharp tinging noise interrupted Klaudette’s thoughts, the sound of a rock hitting a tin roof nearby.

“Can’t be…” Klaudette whispered to herself in a mesmerized wonder. 

TJ appeared in her line of sight, unaware of Klaudette’s presence in the back yard. He swung his arms as he spun, acting almost disorientated by emotion. His feet caught the ground and he tumbled forward, face busting against the alley’s sharp rocks. He huffed and righted himself before beginning to stumble back towards his vague destination. The clothes on his body now were soaking wet, reeking up the alley, noticeable from where Klaudette stood. TJ appeared drunk in his actions, causing Klaudette to simmer with a hateful passion. Here Klaudette suffered burying a beloved animal killed in cold blood while the killer ran off to have fun, of all things. 

Klaudette could not do it anymore, the vice of wrath stirring in her soul leapt forward, “Really?” She called down the street. TJ lifted his head, frozen. Klaudette inhaled sharply, “Really? You come back here, after what you did to me, to her… You go and return! And what, are you drunk, you miscreant?”

TJ trembled, face contorting inwards, but he kept walking until he reached Klaudette. TJ’s eyes puffed up in a swollen redness and the skewed angle of his bottom lip revealed a split lip parted by dried blood. The sobs that spoke for Klaudette continued. 

“You get in a fight too? You have no soul. You don’t! You don’t have a clue what you’ve done!” Klaudette’s tired hands clenched together as her body shook in rage. 

TJ shook his head, casting his gaze off to the side before closing his eyes. His horrid mouth opened, but he lurched forward with a heavy cry. TJ suddenly began to cry in front of Klaudette. 

“You…”

TJ’s chest shuddered as he racked in a breath to speak, “You don’t understand either! I- I- I just wanted to be the good guy!”

Klaudette reeled back, “Good guy?”

TJ nodded, gazing towards his feet, “I didn’t want to kill it. I wanted to make it fast so it wouldn’t hurt, either. She started clawing me up and fought. I snapped and… You saw.”

The statement failed to click, “Why did you plan to kill her? Why? She didn’t do anything to you!” 

TJ stomped his foot, shouting at Klaudette, “She screams! My dad hated that cat! Hated! Spit beer on the ground and bitched each time he heard her make noise. Spent dinners just complaining about her, just ranting, drunk, furious. I thought… if I ... “

“If you what?” Klaudette held the spade handle like a crutch as her muscles soothed, “What happened to you?”

“I thought if I killed ya’ cat that my dad would…. would be proud of me. Love me. Be happy again,” TJ shrugged his shoulders, “I thought I’d feel good about it. Powerful. Instead all I got was a sick fear and guilt. I don’t like the way I did it. I don’t like how I killed her. I should die, not that cat. I should’ve cut my own throat not that cat. He won’t ever love me. None of them will. Just not that cat… just not that cat.”

A fierce realization hit TJ, prying his eyes away from the ground towards the spade, just staring. TJ swung his head side to side, “I went home and immediately told him, feelin’ nauseous and sick to say what I did. He glared,” TJ growled, spiteful, “at me. Glared. Angry I was the one out killing her. He wasn’t mad I killed her. Mad he couldn’t be the one to do it. Like I did him an injustice. Fist met face. Pummeled me like he wished he could do to that cat. Should’ve killed me.”

Klaudette’s shoulders drooped. How should she respond? No apology replaced Mitzi. Klaudette shook her head, sighing loudly, “I don’t know, kid. That doesn’t change the fact you killed my cat. She just had kittens this morning, too. Now motherless and cold, I think they’ll all die.”

TJ’s eyes shimmered in the light, “She had kittens? I didn’t know. That changes a lot.”

TJ still gazed at the spade Klaudette held in her hand, casting a look up and down it. Mitzi lay only a foot away from both of them. When TJ’s eyes drifted towards the burial-shrouded cat, he winced like a beaten dog and averted his gaze. Terror started to fill his face, but his countenance shifted to a quiet, decided determination. 

“I’ll bury her for you,” TJ murmured, “Best I can’t do for you, last thing I want to do is at least make up for what I did.”

Klaudette considered his offer exhaustively. Her face lifted up to the sky and she closed her eyes. “I should be the one to bury you. You done her in, off to the grave, don’t need to be the one to finish the ordeal.”

The refusal made TJ frown, head hanging low. “Can I dig the hole? You finish it up yourself, you do it all. Just… help.”

“Fine,” Klaudette replied shortly, angry TJ now had a claim in the burial but also very aware she had no strength to dig any deeper. TJ only nodded solemnly and took the spade from Klaudette. 

The digging commenced. TJ took deep shovelfuls of earth out of the quickly deepening hole. Once the hole reached almost three feet in, he stuck the blade down into the ground and nodded. 

“That ought to be deep enough. That’s how deep I buried the pup I brought home, ‘fore dad kicked its head in. He hates animals. It hurt. I know how you feel, the pain of saying goodbye. I want to say goodbye to it all after this day. I can’t go back.” TJ relinquished the shovel, letting it fall limp to the ground. He nodded to himself before turning to Klaudette, “Will you believe that I’m sorry about this whole thing?”

TJ’s brow quivered, hopeful, but Klaudette pursed her lips. She scoffed, “No, I can’t say I think you are sorry. You can’t kill a cat in cold blood and apologize. You had it in you to kill. Can’t pretend you didn’t. Thanks for the hole kid, but I’m sorry.” Klaudette avoided looking at him and shook her head slowly. She could never forgive him. 

The aquamarine sky illuminated TJ’s stone gray eyes, reflecting the hope as it shattered. The gray eyes shimmered, watery under the sky’s light. TJ took a deep breath and as he exhaled, the breath trilled in a quiet laughter. He swallowed sharply, casting his head down and squinting. TJ pursed his own lips. He replied, “I understand.”

“I’m sorry, kid,” Klaudette dipped her head and glanced at Mitzi’s body that lay forlornly on the moist soil. 

TJ scoffed, eyes red and shimmering. He jerked his head to the side and marched off, swinging his arms to the side. TJ swallowed hard, “No, no. Whatever. Fine. I get it.”

Klaudette winced, “I hope you learn a lesson from this. I-”

“Trust me,” TJ spit on the ground, opening his eyes wide with obscene madness, “I’ll take it to my grave. I will. I’m done with this whole thing. Bury your cat. Good _bye._ ” TJ nodded his head harshly and took off down the alley. 

Klaudette’s hand shook from the pressure, but she continued in the burial. 

Mitzi’s body sat in the ground, a beacon of green in the dark, enclosing brown. Klaudette pushed the dirt onto Mitzi’s body until a mound formed. She sighed, bidding her friend goodbye. Klaudette turned away, feeling like she needed to do something. Her old mind ticked, finally striking the right time and remembering what she needed: check on the kittens!

Klaudette replaced the spade in the shed and opened her back door, still ajar from last time it opened. The coldness inside the house hit Klaudette the moment she walked in. A shiver trailed down Klaudette’s spine. Klaudette’s eyes readjusted to the luminescent lights. The box of kittens on Klaudette’s table started to bounce around once again once Klaudette walked by. The kittens called out in hunger. 

“Alright, darlin’s, I’m here. I won’t leave ya. But, I saw we oughtta go take a trip to the vet and get ya’ checked out, now,” Klaudette sighed to herself, still unnerved by her previous encounter. 

Klaudette opened the box and peered inside to the bobbing kittens. A few kittens raised their shaking heads up towards Klaudette. Something caught her eye very suddenly. 

“Oh? I didn’t see you before.”

A dark gray emerged from the mass. The kitten had fuzzy tufts hanging off his face, just like his mother. The kitten pushed his way up from the rest of his siblings to the side of the box. The kitten opened his little mouth and began to mew, yet, he could not get the right sound out. 

The gray kitten started to squeak a high scream, just like his mother, like Mitzi. 


End file.
